ULA’s Atlas-5 rocket launches 29 Leo satellites for Amazon
ULA this evening successfully placed 29 more Leo satellites into orbit for Amazon, its Atlas-5 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
ULA is in the process of retiring the Atlas-5 rocket. It now has only seven Atlas-5 rockets left in stock, with one reserved for Leo launches and six for Boeing’s Starliner manned capsule (though there is a good chance some if not all of the Starliner launches will be switched to other payloads). Because its Vulcan rocket, intended to replace Atlas-5, is presently grounded, the company appears to be accelerating Atlas-5 launches, with the last few launches space only about a month apart.
With this launch, Amazon now has 331 Leo satellites in orbit, out of the 1,616 it needs to launch by July to meet its FCC license requirement. It is not going to meet that requirement, because two of the five rockets it contracted for launches are presently grounded (ULA’s Vulcan and Blue Origin’s New Glenn), and only one launch is presently scheduled before July, by Arianespace’s Ariane-6. Furthermore, ULA has only one more Atlas-5 scheduled for Leo, and the ten launches Amazon had purchased from SpaceX are not scheduled. For these reasons, Amazon has asked for a time extension, which the FCC is presently considering.
As this was only the fourth launch by ULA in 2026, the leader board for the 2026 launch race remains unchanged:
63 SpaceX
30 China
8 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 63 to 54.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
ULA this evening successfully placed 29 more Leo satellites into orbit for Amazon, its Atlas-5 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
ULA is in the process of retiring the Atlas-5 rocket. It now has only seven Atlas-5 rockets left in stock, with one reserved for Leo launches and six for Boeing’s Starliner manned capsule (though there is a good chance some if not all of the Starliner launches will be switched to other payloads). Because its Vulcan rocket, intended to replace Atlas-5, is presently grounded, the company appears to be accelerating Atlas-5 launches, with the last few launches space only about a month apart.
With this launch, Amazon now has 331 Leo satellites in orbit, out of the 1,616 it needs to launch by July to meet its FCC license requirement. It is not going to meet that requirement, because two of the five rockets it contracted for launches are presently grounded (ULA’s Vulcan and Blue Origin’s New Glenn), and only one launch is presently scheduled before July, by Arianespace’s Ariane-6. Furthermore, ULA has only one more Atlas-5 scheduled for Leo, and the ten launches Amazon had purchased from SpaceX are not scheduled. For these reasons, Amazon has asked for a time extension, which the FCC is presently considering.
As this was only the fourth launch by ULA in 2026, the leader board for the 2026 launch race remains unchanged:
63 SpaceX
30 China
8 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 63 to 54.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News